We apply the reduced Google matrix method to analyse interactions between 95 terrorist groups and determine their relationships and influence on 64 world countries. This is done on the basis of the Google matrix of the English Wikipedia (2017) composed of 5416537 articles which accumulate a great part of global human knowledge. The reduced Google matrix takes into account the direct and hidden links between a selection of 159 nodes (articles) appearing due to all paths of a random surfer moving over the whole network. As a result we obtain the network structure of terrorist groups and their relations with selected countries. Using the sensitivity of PageRank to a weight variation of specific links we determine the geopolitical sensitivity and influence of specific terrorist groups on world countries. We argue that this approach can find useful application for more extensive and detailed data bases analysis.

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A series of allyl ansa-lanthanidocenes, [{Me2C(C5H4)-(Flu)}Nd(1,3-C3H3(SiMe3)(2))(2)]K (Flu = 9-fluorenyl; 1-Nd-K(allyl)) and {R2C(C5H4)(R'R'Flu)}Ln(1,3-C3H3(SiMe3)(2))(THF)(x) (R = Me, R' = 2,7-tBu(2), Ln = Y (2-Y), Sc (2-Sc), x = 0; Ln = La (2-La), Pr (2-Pr), Nd (2-Nd), Sm (2-Sm), x = 1; R = Me, R' = oct = octamethyloctahydrodibenzo, Ln = Nd, x = 1 (3-Nd); R = Ph, R' = H, Ln = Nd, x = 1 (4-Nd); R = Me, R' = 3,6-tBu(2), Ln = Nd, x = 1 (5-Nd)), were prepared in good yields and characterized by NMR spectroscopy (for diamagnetic complexes 2-Sc, 2-Y, and 2-La) and by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (1-Nd-K(allyl), 2-La, 2-Pr, 2-Nd, 2-Sm, and 4-Nd). Those complexes, especially 1-Nd-K(allyl), 2-Nd, 4-Nd, 2-La, and 2-Sm, act as single-component catalyst precursors for polymerization of styrene (in bulk or in aliphatic hydrocarbon solutions, (nBu)(2)Mg as scavenger, T-polym = 60-140 C), affording highly syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) ([r](5) = 63-88%; T-m up to 260 C). High productivities (up to 4560 kg(sPS) mol(Ln)(-1) h(-1)) were achieved at 120-140 C, at low catalyst loadings ([St]/[Nd] = 20000-76000 equiv), with 2-Nd and 2-Pr. On the other hand, precursors having bulky substituents on the fluorenyl moieties in 3,6-positions (3-Nd, 5-Nd) or based on small ionic radius metals (2-Y, 2-Sc) were poorly or not active under standard polymerization conditions. These results have been rationalized by DFT computations, which included the solvent, carried out on the putative 1-Nd, and the isolated 2-Nd and 5-Nd complexes. Three consecutive styrene insertions were studied, and it was revealed that (i) the formation of sPS is thermodynamically controlled by two effects-minimization of repulsions between fluorenyl/styrene phenyl ring and (in the initiation phase) fluorenyl/SiMe3 substituents of the allyl ligand-and (ii) the presence of bulky substituents on the fluorenyl moiety does not influence the activation barrier of monomer insertion, but it may destabilize thermodynamically the insertion product.

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The secular thickening of a self-gravitating stellar galactic disc is investigated using the dressed collisionless Fokker–Planck equation and the inhomogeneous multicomponent Balescu–Lenard equation. The thick WKB limits for the diffusion fluxes are found using the epicyclic approximation, while assuming that only radially tightly wound transient spirals are sustained by the disc. This yields simple quadratures for the drift and diffusion coefficients, providing a clear understanding of the positions of maximum vertical orbital diffusion within the disc, induced by fluctuations either external or due to the finite number of particles. These thick limits also offer a consistent derivation of a thick disc Toomre parameter, which is shown to be exponentially boosted by the ratio of the vertical to radial scaleheights. Dressed potential fluctuations within the disc statistically induce a vertical bending of a subset of resonant orbits, triggering the corresponding increase in vertical velocity dispersion. When applied to a tepid stable tapered disc perturbed by shot noise, these two frameworks reproduce qualitatively the formation of ridges of resonant orbits towards larger vertical actions, as found in direct numerical simulations, but overestimates the time-scale involved in their appearance. Swing amplification is likely needed to resolve this discrepancy, as demonstrated in the case of razor-thin discs. Other sources of thickening are also investigated, such as fading sequences of slowing bars, or the joint evolution of a population of giant molecular clouds within the disc.

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Thanks to new water-soluble Ru nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized by sulfonated NHC ligands, we demonstrate that it is possible to monitor the catalyst/substrate interaction using NMR chemical shift perturbations (CSPs), under conditions that closely resemble those applied during the enantiospecific C-H deuteration of L-lysine. Correlating the pH dependence of the interaction of L-lysine with the surface of the RuNPs and its subsequent deuteration, our study underscores the importance of oriented binding to the surface as a critical factor for H/D exchange.

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